Emancipation of Government Slaves

Sunjo freed some 66,000 slaves belonging to the royal household and central government offices — a sign of the late-Joseon loosening of status.

As slaves absconded and their dues became hard to collect, the state burned the registers of some 66,000 palace and office slaves and made them commoners. Together with the rule that a slave’s child followed the mother’s status (Yeongjo, 1731), it shrank the slave population. Hereditary slavery was abolished in 1886 and the status system itself by the Gabo Reform of 1894.

In late Joseon the yangban multiplied while commoners and slaves dwindled. From the Imjin War the state sold blank honorary office warrants (gongmyeongcheop) and status for grain or money (napsok), and wealthy farmers bought or forged genealogies. Sons of concubines petitioned their way into office — Jeongjo made several Gyujanggak editors and the bar was largely lifted in 1851 — and the chungin middle class followed with petitions of their own.